Maine Policy Review

Volume 23 | Issue 2

2014 Ten Comparisons, Then and Now U.S. Senate

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Ten Comparisons, Then and Now

by Angus King

was sworn in as a U.S. senator 40 years to the day after Massachusetts has a larger population than Maine’s, but I I went to work as a staff member in the U.S. Senate, it’s not that much larger. Today, to run for reelection in on January 3, 1973. So, I have an interesting perspec- a competitive state, the average U.S. senator needs to tive on politics then and now from having worked for raise between $8,000 and $10,000 a day, every day, 365 Senator Bill Hathaway of Maine in his 1972 campaign; days a year, for six years. then going to work for him in Washington; and now, Think for a minute: $10,000 a day, every day, seven unexpectedly, finding myself back there 40 years later. I days a week. You very quickly run out of friends and would like to share with you some comparisons between family. Where does all that money come from? politics then and now. Unfortunately, it tends to come from people who are interested in what you are doing. I remember former MONEY Congressman Barney Frank saying a few years ago, with typical wit,“We have the only political system in the ill Hathaway’s campaign in 1972 was the most history of the world where perfect strangers are expected Bexpensive campaign ever run in Maine to that point, to give you large sums of money and not expect and it cost $212,000. My campaign last year cost $3 anything in return!” million, and it was the cheapest winning campaign in It is a scandal waiting to happen. It’s a real problem, the . In fact, a friend from Washington not only in terms of the amounts involved and where called during the campaign and asked, “What’s your you get it, but also in terms of how much time it takes. budget?” I said, “Well, about three million dollars.” He I see my colleagues who are up for reelection next year, replied, “What a quaint number!” who are spending hours and hours every day on the Money has become a huge problem in American telephone, asking for money. On top of this, we have politics, huge because there is an insatiable demand for this terrible case, where people can give all this money it. My campaign cost three million. There was probably anonymously. It’s one thing if you know where it’s another million and a half or two spent on my behalf coming from, but now there’s no way to know. by outsiders, and then there was six or seven million The six or seven million that was spent against me? spent against me. Do you remember the ads with the Nobody knows who gave that money. The U.S. Chamber little crown on my head? My granddaughter loved of Commerce was at the bottom of the “crown” ad, but those ads. She said, “Look, there’s granddad with a we don’t know where they got the several million they crown on.” She thought it was really cute; she didn’t spent. I believe it was Senator John McCain of Arizona know they were spending millions of dollars to assassi- who said that they had become kind of an identity- nate my character. laundering organization, and I think that’s a real I think we have a good measure of what all that problem. spending was worth. When I ran for in 1998, In the Citizens United decision, the Supreme I got 59 percent of the vote; this time I got 53 percent. Court invited Congress to require disclosure. Congress They spent $6 million on negative ads. I figure they hasn’t done it yet, but it’s something we should do. You spent a million dollars a percentage point to take me cannot go to a Maine town meeting with a bag over your from 59 to 53 percent. That’s a rough figure for what it head. You have to say, here’s who I am, here’s what I was worth. I’m just glad they didn’t spend $50 million. believe, and here’s who I am contributing to. Here’s the problem. I spent three million, and We in Maine, in New Mexico, in California, and there was probably ten million spent in total. In everywhere, are being battered by these advertisements, Massachusetts, where was running without any idea of who’s behind them. There are no against Scott Brown, the expenditures were $42 million limits. It can be a single person with millions and apiece. That’s $42 million on each campaign. millions of dollars. In 2012, one man backing Newt

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Gingrich for president wrote a check for well more than their polling numbers are down.” Then I heard, “Well, ten million dollars—one person. That’s not good for our the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the business democracy. So that’s a big difference between politics community are not going to contribute to the then and now; $10,000 a day—just think of that. Republicans, and that will shape them up.” No! If you’re from one of those safe Republican districts in Georgia, GERRYMANDERING THE U.S. or Ohio, or Wisconsin, or Tennessee, you don’t care HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES about these national polls. All you care about is your district, and in that district, you were being cheered for errymandering is a term that dates back to Governor closing down the government. That’s what they went GElbridge Gerry of Massachusetts in the early nine- there to do. teenth century. It refers to the purposeful drawing of I talked to one writer who said she had talked to election districts to exclude certain voters and include some of the Tea Party Republicans, and the calls from others, so these become “safe” districts for the party in their districts during the shutdown were ten-to-one in power. favor. Do you see what I mean? It’s why the House didn’t Half or more of the House districts today have been care about the polls. What happens nationally doesn’t gerrymandered to the point where they are politically really matter, if your base is that district. It can work safe seats. This means that the primary election in that both ways, but right now it’s working more on the district is the election. If you win the Republican Republican side that is so one-sided. It’s the reason that primary in a Republican-drawn district, you are going to things have pulled so far apart. It’s why the House didn’t be the congressperson. There’s no contest. The Democrat care about the polls. doesn’t have a prayer because the lines have been drawn in such a way that it’s going to be 60 or 70 percent THE CENTER-LESS U.S. SENATE Republican, and vice versa. And by the way, there are safe Democratic districts, too. n 1972, when I was working for Bill Hathaway, there This means that the person who runs in the primary Iwas an ideological spectrum across the Senate as a is vulnerable only to somebody running on their flank. body (extending both arms). Among the Democrats, If you’re in a Republican district and running in a you had Teddy Kennedy on the left and John Stennis, Republican primary, there’s always the threat of some- a Democrat from Mississippi and the long-time chair body running who’s going to be more conservative than of the Armed Services Committee, on the right of you, and you’re pushed to the right. By the same token, the party. On the Republican side, you had Barry for the Democrat, you’re being pushed to be more Goldwater on the right and Jacob Javits of New York, a liberal. So, it is the extreme activists who control the Republican who was way more liberal than Stennis, on primaries, and in many places, unfortunately, not many the left of the party. There were about 20 people in a people vote in the primaries. broad, middle category, who were liberal-to-moderate- Last summer [2013], when I was running in Maine, leaning Republicans and conservative-to-liberal-leaning the Republicans nominated with just Democrats. There was considerable overlap, you see, at 13 percent of the registered Republican vote. The the center. Democrats nominated with just 9 percent Today it’s like this: there is, literally, no overlap. of the registered Democratic vote. If you do the math, , of Alaska, and John it’s like 1 or 2 percent of the people of Maine who nomi- McCain of Arizona (sometimes) are over on the more nated the two major party candidates. The activists in moderate side of the Republican Party. of each party tend to control these primaries, particularly West and I and several others are over on the if there’s a small turnout. This is what produced this right side of the Democratic caucus, but generally we immensely polarized House of Representatives and the don’t overlap. You see the problem? There is no center. government shutdown. There is, of course, our little group of 14, but it is harder I have heard commentators say, “Well, the and harder to find a center. Republicans in the House are going to cave in soon, I can remember in college, there were political because the polls for the Republicans are down.” scientists who wrote that “We need more ideologically Remember hearing that? “They’re getting hammered, pure parties; these ‘big tent’ parties just don’t make sense”

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(American Political Science Association 1950).1 It turns problems now is the multiplicity of information sources out they did make sense, and we are now reaping the that create these alternative realities and make it virtu- whirlwind of having these ideological parties. It makes it ally impossible to find agreement. As we go into the so hard to solve problems. That is a big change in the last upcoming budget negotiation, that is going to be one 25 years. of our major hurdles.

BALKANIZATION OF THE NEWS BUSINESS

hen I was growing up, we all got our information One of the problems­ now is the Wfrom essentially one person, Walter Cronkite, or at most, from a relatively few national sources. Today multiplicity of information sources there is a news source to fit your biases. If you’re a liberal, you watch Rachel Maddow on MSNBC; if that create these alternative realities you’re a conservative, you watch Fox News; and if you and make it virtually impossible can’t make up your mind, you watch CNN. The point is, it’s human nature to seek out sources of information to find agreement. that agree with our biases. We tend to read and listen to those sources and commentators who already agree with us. The problem is we end up living in alternative- reality universes, where we don’t share the facts. I found SOCIAL MEDIA when I was governor that if you can get people into a room and have a common understanding of the facts, ne of the most important things in my campaign it’s often easy to find a solution; it becomes self-evident. Olast year was Facebook. At the end of the campaign It’s when different people have different versions of we had something like 45,000 people following our reality that it’s almost impossible to find a solution. Facebook page. For a politician, Facebook is like going Here are two examples from my experience in door-to-door without having to walk between the Augusta. One was forest clear-cutting. Remember the houses. It’s an amazing way to connect with people, to big clear-cutting controversy? Jonathan Carter of have a certain kind of direct communication with them. Lexington Township had his version of what was going I see people all the time who say, “I love your on in the woods, and the paper companies had an Facebook page, thanks for keeping us up with what’s entirely different version about the facts—about how going on.” It’s the kind of connection we all crave. Of many trees were growing, how fast they would grow course, Twitter and texts and those kinds of things are back, and all that. So, it was virtually impossible to find the same: they have changed politics and are making a a middle ground for a policy solution. huge difference. There are specialists in Washington now On the other hand, we decided with the New who do nothing but tell you how to maintain your England governors and the eastern Canadian premiers Facebook page, how to get more viewers, how to get a to do something about transported mercury pollution. higher ranking in Google, and all that. By the way, I Instead of starting with a prescription about what to do don’t know about you all, but I feel pretty cool to have about it, we assigned our environmental commissioners been alive at the invention of a new verb, “to google.” to spend a year quietly studying the problem. Where is Social media in 1972, when I was working for Bill the pollution coming from? What is it doing? How bad Hathaway, was calling your mother-in-law and asking, is it? We established a really good scientific basis and “How’s it going here?” That was about it. ended up with a piece of legislation that passed the almost unanimously—because of the EVERYONE GOES HOME facts. We agreed on the facts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late and great obody lives in Washington anymore. When I senator from New York, once said, “Everyone is entitled Nworked for Bill Hathaway, almost all the senators to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” One of the lived in Washington. Bill Hathaway lived in McLean,

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Virginia; his kids went to school there. His wife was adopted her so she could get benefits and put her there, his family was there, and they hung out. Members through college. of South Carolina had a of Congress played golf, they had dinner together, and father who was an alcoholic and died when Tim was 16. there was a lot of socializing among them. Now that’s Joe Donnelly of Indiana lost his mother when he was 10. almost all gone because everybody goes home. Even my His father raised four children. friend Michael Bennett of Colorado goes home every Someone has asked me, “What are your biggest weekend; his wife and kids live in Denver. surprises?” One of my biggest is that these are, mostly, Washington clears out, and the work schedule now just regular people. (I mean, Jay Rockefeller? Okay, but accommodates this. The work schedule of Congress is he’s a wonderful guy.) These are interesting people. generally from Monday afternoon to Thursday evening, Many of them are wealthy, but virtually all of them, with which means you can go home Thursday night; stay the exception of Jay and a few others, achieved their Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; and come back Monday wealth on their own, later in life. They weren’t born into morning. A lot of the time at home is spent campaigning it. It’s not some kind of aristocracy, and that’s kind of and fundraising; it’s not just kicking back and relaxing. reassuring, but the problem is, people don’t live in The point is, the center of gravity of these folks is Washington. away from and not in Washington. This has diminished the kind of personal relationships that are necessary to THE RISE OF GOVERNMENT LUDDITES make a complex organization like Congress function. One of my friends in Augusta once said, “You can’t hate emember the Luddites? They were the people someone if you know the names of their kids.” There is Rin nineteenth century England who hated the a lot of truth to this. Right now, we don’t much know machines that were taking their jobs and set about to the names of each other’s kids. break them. There is a bunch of people in Congress I’m doing my best to crack this. Mary and I have today who hate government. Now, it’s an odd thing to a little place that’s within walking distance of the run for government if you hate it, but there are a lot of Capitol. I don’t even have a car, I walk. There’s a rib them. That is the other reason the recent government house two blocks from my house, and in the last few shutdown was so hard to deal with—because there were weeks I’ve had seven, eight, or nine senators in for ribs. many people for whom it represented success. They I don’t have to cook, we just pick up the ribs and go came to Washington promising their constituents they home. We’ve got to try and crack this business of not would shut down the government. They don’t want to knowing one another, and all of these people have govern, and that makes it hard. It’s easy to negotiate fascinating stories. with someone if you share the goal of governing effec- The highlight of my week is often Wednesday tively, of taking care of the people’s needs. morning, the Senate Prayer Breakfast. The reason I like If you are going to buy a car and I’m going to sell it is it’s nice to have a little time for a spiritual something, my car, you may want the car and I want to sell it; in the but it’s also the only truly bipartisan event of the week, question of setting a price, we share a common goal. But where Republicans and Democrats are together. We if one side has no interest in governing, and really wants have breakfast together. The Senate Chaplain, retired the whole thing to fail, that makes it difficult to govern. Admiral Barry Black, gives a prayer, we sing a hymn, we It makes it difficult because of the way our Constitution say a prayer, and then one of the senators tells a story. It is designed. involves their faith, but it also reveals who they are. Our Constitution has two operating principles that One of the things that has struck me is how many are in constant tension with one another. The one is of these people come from unexceptional circumstances; governing. After a Senate hearing two or three weeks in fact, almost all do. A remarkable number of them ago, I ran into one of my college history professors, come from single-parent homes, a disproportionate whom I hadn’t seen in 47 years. I asked him, “Larry, is percentage it would seem. of South there any precedent for this totally chaotic situation Carolina grew up above a bar and pool room owned and that we’re in now?” He replied, “Of course. It was run by his parents, both of whom died when he was 19 during the time of the Articles of Confederation,” the or 20 years old. He raised his 13-year-old sister and period after the Revolution and before the Constitution.

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It was so chaotic, disorganized, and ineffective that the ABUSE OF THE RULES framers came together to write the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation didn’t create a functioning yndon Johnson of Texas was Senate Majority Leader government; it created the occasion for the Constitution, Lfrom 1954 to 1960. In six and a half years, he dealt to govern ourselves. with cloture motions on six . In the last six and Then, the framers also said, “Yes, but we’re afraid of a half years, Majority Leader Harry Reid has dealt with government, we don’t want it to abuse us. We’re afraid cloture motions on 400 filibusters. That’s not right. That of concentrated power, so we’re going to create all these is just not the way the system was designed to work. Of checks and balances, and make it complex and hard to course, the way the senate rule works is, you get things done.” These two forces, you see, are always in have to have 60 votes to break it. tension, but if you take the governing part away, it’s To give you an idea of how this has changed, I was really easy to screw up our system. In fact, it’s ridicu- on the floor one day and listened to Senator of lously easy to bring it to a grinding halt if you don’t Texas, who’s a very smart guy, with an amazing family share the common goal of getting to a conclusion that’s history. His father was born in Cuba and went into the beneficial to the American people. mountains at the age of 14 to fight with Castro’s army. This is a new development in my experience. I’ve He was captured by the dictator Batista, was tortured dealt with plenty of conservatives in the Maine legisla- and put in jail; he escaped from Cuba, went to Texas, ture and throughout my life, but to say we don’t want and raised a family. Anyway, Ted Cruz said something— government to work, we want it to fail, we want to without any sense of irony—and I remember sitting destroy the government, is a new experience for me. I’m there being shocked by it: “This amendment should be sure there’s always been this undercurrent in the nation, subject to the normal 60-vote requirement.” It’s not a but to have it be a significant political force in the normal 60-vote requirement. It wasn’t normal for more country is something that we didn’t face in the 1970s. than 200 years; it’s been normal for just the past five or If I may, let me say one thing more that is related six years. and really bothers me. It’s about public service in America today. There’s a mood in the country today that denigrates public service. I mentioned Carl Levin of Michigan. He and I went to Turkey and Jordan in July [2013] to learn about the Syrian situation. We met with There’s a mood in the country today all kinds of people, the and the that denigrates public service. Turkish politicians. We also met with these incredible young Americans in the State Department, in the intel- ligence community, and in the military who are ideal- istic, hard-working, and doing great good in dangerous situations. They haven’t had a raise in three years; they When I came in January, there were 46 senators have been furloughed once and they had just been who had been in the Senate for six years or less. Does furloughed again. These people are doing so much for this surprise you? You think of the U.S. Senate as a place our society. Then, there’s an attitude out there that’s so where people go and stay forever, but there are almost negative—you know, “those bureaucrats!”—and it really half, with six years or less. One of the problems with the bothers me. filibuster is that these people all think this is the way it’s When I got back and Mary asked, “What did you supposed to be. Not doing anything is the norm because think of the Middle East?” I said, “The thing that struck that’s been the way it is. I went in as a firebrand, saying me most is the quality of these young people we have “Let’s change that filibuster rule.” I was ready to vote for working for us over there under the most difficult it with Majority Leader Reid back in January. I’m prob- circumstances, and we’re not treating them properly for ably still there, but I’m less enthusiastic than I was the incredible contributions they make.” I wish I had a before. We could spend a month writing a filibuster rule, crisper answer, but I really think that may be at the but if people want to abuse the system, they’re still going heart of it. to do so.

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For example, there’s a rule in the Senate that every It’s an extra-constitutional way of changing the laws bill has to be read aloud. Typically, what happens is the that I find very, very troubling. It’s why the president bill gets called up, the clerk reads the first two or three and Harry Reid were so resistant to what was going on. lines, and some member says, “I ask for unanimous If this had been successful, it would have become the consent that we waive the reading of the bill.” The norm, just like the 60-vote majority. It would have been, presiding officer rules, “Without objection, so ordered.” “We’ll just do this every six months or so, and we’ll get But if one senator objected, all we would do is read bills. what we want.” Particularly when you’re talking about a It would take hours or days to read a several hundred group for whom a shutdown is a success. It’s a dangerous page bill, and there are all kinds of other things that situation, and it is not the way our system is supposed could gum up the works. to work. The point I’m making is that it’s more about atti- If you go to a little book, How a Bill Becomes a tude than it is about the rules. It’s more about institu- Law (available at http://kids.clerkhouse.gov) nowhere tional respect than it is about the rules. We may end does it say, “If all else fails, take the government hostage up changing the rules, but I’m not sure that’s going to and then you can get your law.” It’s not there. You’re be the answer. Some of the old, stalwart Democrats supposed to win elections. In effect, what we just went are very against changing the rules. Carl Levin of through was an attempt to nullify the 2012 election, and Michigan and Barbara Boxer of California, who were I think that’s anti-democratic. That’s why I am so there when the Democrats were in the minority, have concerned about it. said, “Oh, no! We don’t really want to do this. What if you have a Republican president, Senate, and House, THE REAL ISSUE and they decide to privatize Social Security? We would like to be in a position to slow that train down.” So he current [2013] budget fight is not really about they were very passionate. Carl Levin, who is a Tthe budget, the debt, and the deficits. There is a wonderful guy and unfortunately retiring, was very deeper discussion going on, and it’s really about how passionate. He said, “Be careful, because you change big the federal government should be, what should it do, the rules and then they can be changed on you. You how much it should take in taxes, and how much should may regret it.” it spend; this is an age-old discussion. It’s about the size and scope of the federal government. That is really what is at stake here. I’ve gone back and looked at our history and found There is a deeper discussion going that we’ve had this argument nine different times since 1787. The most famous, of course, was the Civil War. on…. It’s about the size and scope We fought over the question of the proper role of the of the federal government. federal government and the role of the states. It’s a legitimate concern; if we’ve had it eight or nine times, it’s clearly a live question that should be discussed. That is what is going on in the budget debate. What really worries me is the attempt by a portion And the real debt and deficit issue is health care of the House to gain results that they can’t gain through costs. That’s what is driving the debt; that is what’s elections by using the government as a hostage. I’ve been driving the deficits. If you look out into the future, it is criticized for using that word, but I don’t know what else the whole deal. What we call “domestic discretionary to say when somebody takes something, and insists, “I spending,” not Social Security and Medicare, but all the won’t give it back until you give me what I want.” I was other things we think of—Pell Grants, National Parks, very much against using the shutdown and the debt the EPA, the FDA, farm programs, and all those kind of ceiling to change the . The way to things—is down as a percentage of the gross domestic change the Affordable Care Act is to elect Republicans product. It is now about 3 percent, the lowest it has been to the Senate and elect a Republican president, not use in 40 or 50 years. Defense spending goes up and down the system to make laws in a way that’s not in the when we have wars; it’s now around 5 percent and rela- Constitution. tively flat.

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When you look at the federal budget, the items that By the way, it’s no coincidence that four of the six are doing damage are Medicare, Medicaid, and medical senators who did the student loan deal are former gover- costs for federal employees and retired veterans. This is nors. I was talking with Mitch McConnell, the where the cost is and where the deficits are out into the Republican leader, about this and he said, “Well, I have future. My view is that we need to talk about this found that if you ask a former governor who’s now a problem more generally and not just in the context of senator which job they like better, and they say senator, the government. We need to talk about how to lower they will lie to you about other things, too!” health care costs across all of society, for everybody. As I hope you can tell, I’m a person who is curious, Right now we have the highest per capita health who likes public policy, and who likes to try and fix care costs in the world, and we’re seventeenth in the things. I’m having a great time in the Senate, and I want world in terms of results. It’s inexcusable. We spend now to thank all of you for giving me this unbelievable 17 or 18 percent of GNP on health care; in Maine it is opportunity to work for you and for the people of the 20 percent. This means that one in every five dollars country. spent in Maine is spent on health care, and our results What we did on the shutdown is by no means a aren’t competitive with the rest of the world. This is a dramatic answer to everything. It may be just a sliver of whole different way to talk about health care, but it hope that budget negotiations may work. It’s going to be means changing the way we pay for it and what the hard to solve the budget, because the two sides are far incentives are. apart, but I’m hoping that people now realize that nobody can get it all, that it has to involve compromise. TWO TO TANGO Yes, compromise. This U.S. government was built on compromise. The U.S. Senate was created as a result of he only way anything gets done in Washington a compromise at the Constitutional Convention, and Tis with both parties. It is simple arithmetic, and that’s the way we have to make it work. you would be amazed how few people get this. The Republicans in the House think they run the place. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS The Democrats in the Senate think they run the place. [Editor’s note: Many of the questions which related The president thinks he runs the place. But, if you to specific constituent concerns or which were well off have a Democratic president, a Republican House, the topic of “Politics Then and Now” have been omitted and a Democratic Senate—with rules such that the here.] Republican minority has enormous power—you can just do the math. Can anything be done about the gerrymandering? In order to do anything, it’s got to be bipartisan, or Neither party wants to change it. And it is very as I’m training them to say, nonpartisan. Occasionally undemocratic, when one considers that a candidate gets they say tripartisan when they see me in the room. This elected to the House and has to become more and more means that we are stymied if one party tries to assert the conservative to stay elected. How can we eliminate answer to all the questions. It just can’t happen. What I gerrymandering? am trying to do is to work with Susan Collins’ working group as I did with last summer’s working group on KING: I had hoped we could pass a law, as it’s a really student loans. I had a very heated meeting with the serious problem, number two on my list. Unfortunately, Democratic Caucus on the student loan issue because it turns out to be a state-by-state matter, and if you’ve they wanted to hold out, to have their plan and nothing got a state that’s solidly in the hands of one party or the else. I got up in front of them and said, “Yes, but you other, they’re not likely to let go of this power. California don’t have the votes. If we’re going to do this, we need has done it. When he was governor, Arnold Republican votes.” Schwarzenegger got through a referendum that created a We put together a coalition involving Republicans nonpartisan commission to do it on a scientific basis, and Democrats, built out from the center, and ended up and my impression is that it’s worked pretty well; passing a bill in the Senate and in the House, and the however, I don’t think the Supreme Court will get president signed it. This would never have happened if involved. both sides had held to their iron-clad positions.

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Thank you for speaking up as strongly as you have for we have today can be best characterized as a legalized the importance of health insurance in people’s lives. mixture of bribery and extortion. What can we do? Is You were quoted in the New York Times as saying it’s there a solution short of a constitutional amendment? immoral to encourage people not to sign up for health insurance. My question is about the issue of campaign KING: I doubt it. I think it’s going to take a constitu- finance reform: What can we as citizens do in terms of tional amendment because Citizens United is based on getting some movement on that? a reading of the First Amendment. I don’t believe it’s a correct reading, but that’s now the law. The Supreme KING: On health insurance, here’s my story. When I Court decided it, and it’s going to take a constitutional worked for Senator Hathaway I had health insurance amendment to change it. This is a tricky thing, a consti- and went for a routine checkup because it covered tutional amendment; you’ve got to be very sure about annual checkups. I hadn’t had a checkup in nine years. how you write it. I don’t know how the current case is They found that I had a malignant melanoma. It’s a going to come out, but if they rule that there can be no disease that you either get operated on right away and limits whatever on contributions, it will be a very delete- you’re okay, or you don’t and you’re gone. I’m here only rious decision. because I had health insurance, so I feel personally passionate about this. I can’t figure out how it’s fair for Since the 1970s, we’ve had an enormous increase me to be here while some other person, who didn’t have in economic inequality in this country. The average that health insurance and get the checkup, died. Nine income of a white male has actually declined and prac- thousand people a year die of melanoma. Between tically all of the increase in gross domestic product per 25,000 and 45,000 people a year die in the UNITED capita has gone to a very thin sliver at the top. With STATES simply because they don’t have insurance. the Supreme Court’s decisions on money and politics, Often they put off treatment until it’s too late. this thin sliver seems to have even more influence in On campaign finance reform, this will have to be a what goes on, and in the long-run this clearly is not national movement. Call your cousins and uncles and sustainable. We don’t want a violent revolution. How aunts in other states. I think everyone in the Maine do we get out of this dilemma? delegation is okay on this issue. The problem is, the parties are always asking, “Will it benefit me and help KING: This concerns me because the numbers verify my party, or will it help the other party?” You never exactly what you have said. I’m not a redistributionist, I know when it’s going to work one way or the other. The don’t think that’s the answer, but I think the government one thing we can do, although it’s not going to be easy, shouldn’t aggravate the problem. The tax system and the is disclosure, so at least people know where all this way our programs are funded ought to be fair and equi- money is coming from. table, and I believe in the progressive income tax. Right now you can’t give more than $2,500 to a Yes, I worry about it. This is a little bit of an exag- federal candidate. The Supreme Court is hearing a case geration, but we don’t want to become a country of right now and there’s an even chance that they will gated communities. We don’t want to become a country declare that limit unconstitutional, and say people can where the wealthy are behind barbed wire and every- give whatever they want. [Editors Barringer and Palmer body else is outside. I worry about violence. A man from note: See McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission. out-of-state, who was starting a new business in Maine, On April 2, 2014, by a 5-4 vote the U.S. Supreme Court once visited me in Augusta and wanted to know where struck down aggregate limits on contributions to candi- Maine’s gated communities were. I told him the only dates, as Senator King had feared.] That is not what our one I knew of was in Thomaston. country was designed to do. The idea that money equals I wish I had an answer to your question. The best speech, I’m just not sure about, but that’s what the answer is probably investment in education so that Supreme Court has held. Keep active on the issue. everybody has a chance. You know the old saying, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” In the future it’s I, too, am very concerned and disturbed by the going to be, “the educated get richer and the uneducated corrupting influence of campaign finance. The system get poorer.” Education is the opportunity.

34 MAINE POLICY REVIEW Summer/Fall 2014 View current & previous issues of MPR at: digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/ POLITICS THEN AND NOW: Ten Comparisons

When you were working with Senator Hathaway, ENDNOTE Senator Muskie was the senior senator. From what you 1. Editors’ Barringer and Palmer note: The controversial saw then, has working with senior leadership changed majority report of this committee, including the noted from what it was then? authors of two textbooks on political parties, Austin Ranney and Elmer Schattshneider (later president of the American Political Science Association [APSA]), KING: Senator Collins is my senior, and I’ve got to tell supported the two-party system while asserting that you, she is terrific. I always liked her and respected her. the parties should be reorganized to represent clear I knew she was tenacious. I now serve on the Intelligence differences on fundamental issues, as conservative or Committee with her, and I’ve seen her mind work. She’s liberal. In the wake of the Populist movements early really smart, well-balanced, and she has guts. It took in the century and the deep partisan conflicts of the 1930s, the majority report argued that democracy guts for her to put this nonpartisan group together, to would better be served through competition on these try and work out this budget matter. She took flak from issues between parties rather than within their internal her leadership, from other people, and she did it. I structure and processes. In the decades following, the always liked her, but my esteem for her has only grown parties weakened in virtually all aspects, leading to from working with her. She’s really an able senator and the present-day system with polarized parties similar to those advocated in the 1950 majority report. The we’re fortunate to have her. advent of more ideologically coherent parties has made scholars more sensitive to their potentially unhealthy I’m a farmer, and as a farmer, there’s not a whole lot of effects in a separated governance system. A program power or money in my profession. I would love to hear to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the report from you about the role of integrity and accountability was held at the 2000 APSA meeting in Washington, DC (Green and Harrison 2000). in Washington, and how you maintain the values that I hear you talk about. REFERENCES KING: It is a question of values. Why does one do what American Political Science Association. 1950. “Toward a I’m doing? You do it because you think you can make a More Responsible Two-Party System: A Report of the bit of a difference in peoples’ lives. I thought long and Committee on Political Parties.” American Political hard about whether to run for public office again. I was Science Review 44(3) Supplement. pretty happily retired, teaching, building windmills, and Green, John C., and Paul S. Herrnson, eds. 2000. Party having some fun. It changed my life utterly to do this, Politics: A Century of Change and Continuity. APSA but ultimately, here’s how I decided to do it. I can tell Responsible Parties Project, 1950–2000. American Political Science Association. you the exact moment. Mary and I decided that, after our daughter went off to college, we would go RV’ing again, and travel the country. Then I began to think about running for the Angus King was elected to the Senate and what a drastic change that would make in my U.S. Senate from Maine in 2012. life. How do I make this decision? It finally came to me, He served as how will I feel 10 years from now, looking back, and from 1995 to 2003. In the Senate, answering this question: “You might have made a differ- King is a member of the Armed ence for the country—and you decided to go RV’ing?” Services, Budget, and Rules Once I put the question that way, the answer was committees and is also on the obvious. And here I am. - Select Committee on Intelligence.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The full version of this lecture was published in Barringer, Richard, and Kenneth Palmer, eds. 2014. Politics Then and Now, in Maine and the Nation: Conversations with the Sages. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME. http://muskie.usm.maine .edu/Publications/Politics-Then-and-Now-large.pdf

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